Erskine Court

Southampton, Southampton City Council

Description of Scheme

Erskine Court will provide 54 Housing with Care apartments for the elderly.

• 19 two bedroom apartments
• 18 two bedroom 'Care Ready' HAPPI apartments
• 17 one bedroom apartments

Each flat will have a kitchen, lounge/dining room, bathroom and either one or two bedrooms and storage cupboards. Apartments are provided with electric mobility buggy storage and charging facilities.

It will provide a much improved Housing with Care development for the elderly and those in need of care. The affordable housing scheme would accommodate residents of 55 years and older. The design solution is, therefore, based upon the premise of meeting the specific needs of residents and staff as well as providing a building of high quality architecture which would sit comfortably within the Sutherland Road streetscene. The development will achieve Level 4 Code for Sustainable Homes with 18 of the apartments being 'care ready'. These are constructed to be adaptable to accommodate future technologies and resident's needs.

The building has been designed to reflect the HAPPI principles; to be sustainable, whilst also making a better use of the land. The development and the design solution adopted has been guided by the identified opportunities and constraints of the site together with the comments of existing residents and their families, Council Officers and other third parties.

The building has been designed with an 'N' shaped layout. The 'open' side of the building is orientated south to allow a significant amount of natural daylight and sunlight to reach rooms that face onto a central landscaped court yard.

The court yard comprises a semi-circular patio area together with a meandering path which would pass between lawns and planting beds and provide access to quiet seating areas. The elevations of the building facing into the courtyard area would be constructed with vast expanses of glazing to ensure that the corridor serving the north and west wings of the building would be well lit all year round.

The principal entrance of the building comprises a 3 storey high glazed atrium with entrance doors. On entering the building one would pass through a draught lobby before entering a general foyer area. The scheme also a manager's office, staff room, WC's, commercial kitchen and catering manager's office, communal living rooms and a catering kitchen.

The building is designed with significant areas of glazing with many apartments benefitting from a dual aspect. Each flat within the north and west wings would have one elevation with natural light and ventilation whilst the other elevation would have windows borrowing light from a spacious and well lit corridor.

The corridors themselves are designed to accommodate communal seating areas which would encourage residents to meet and create a sense of community.

The scheme will provide improved ecological environment with the provision of bat and bird boxes together with shrubs and log piles which would be attractive to wildlife. There will also be enhancements to the public open space to the west of the building.

Erskine Court has been designed in an innovative manner that would both make the best use of the site in terms of its residential capacity whilst also providing an exceptional living environment for future residents. The resultant building is of a high architectural quality and design, as promoted by Central Government advice and Development Plan policy.

Where Is It?

Erskine Court is an accessible location within an urban area, close to Lordshill centre. The neighbourhood is characterised by terraces of 1960's council estate houses.

Lordshill District Centre, to the south west, provides a wide range of shops including a large supermarket, bingo hall, library, church and health centre.

Relevant Local Strategy

In 2009 the City Council developed a Supported Housing Asset Plan which reviewed all of its 24 Supported Housing schemes designated for older people. The purpose of this plan was to set out the strategic decisions within a plan for the investment and use of the Supported Housing schemes to help meet the future needs of the City. This plan identified those schemes where there was the need to invest, review or consider alternative options based on the demand, facilities and location of each of the individual schemes. This plan was developed in coordination with Health and Adult Social Care in order to best reflect the changing needs of the city's older population.

This plan was refreshed in 2012 and further investment is now being planned in schemes as part of the current Capital programme. The refreshed plan incorporated the capacity planning for future accommodation options for people with social care needs and identified extra care accommodation as a growing need both to meet demographic changes and to actively reduce the use of residential care.

The Housing Strategy 2011-2015, has as one of its priorities, to provide extra support for those who need it, to enable vulnerable people (particularly older people) to maintain independence in their own home within the community that they live.

The proposal, following this review, is to develop a new purpose built scheme is based on local need, as identified in the city's Housing Strategy and the city's Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (2011-14) which highlights the growing older population within the city in future. The decision also fits with the Council's wider priorities around the provision of housing and care for older people. The Council has undertaken significant work around looking at the future of its entire existing older people's accommodation to maximise opportunities for current housing to meet the future demands of the city and Erskine Court provides the best opportunity for the development of a new purpose built scheme.

There is a target to deliver housing with care services to 300 properties within the City whilst having 100 properties for older people living with dementia. Erskine Court is being developed with both these targets in mind.

Care Services

The scheme will provide 24/7 care and support and staff working hours determined by certain residents.

Facilities

• There will be care staff on site 24/7 supplemented by housing support staff whose hours will be determined based around the needs of current residents
• Both the care and housing support teams will use Erskine Court as their base for delivering services to older people living in the local area
• There is communal spaces on all floors with the main communal lounge and restaurant area on the ground floor being open to residents in the local community.
• The communal areas will have wi-fi access to enable people to use IT in those areas and there will be computer classes run for the benefit of local people.
• The communal gardens which are entered into via the communal lounge will be open to both residents and visitors.

Address

Erskine Court,
Sutherland Road,
Lordshill,
Southampton,
SO16 8FZ.

Scheme Location Map